"Life's either a daring adventure or nothing." Helen Keller

Being Three

Miss Q has picked up her game this summer. It started with the first day of swimming lessons (back on July 5th) when she let go of my hand as we walked into the building and declared she could walk by herself because it wasn’t busy. Now, another mum might have agreed with her daughter and let her claim some independence; but this mother promptly picked her daughter’s hand back up and said, no, you need to stay with me.

The winds of change didn’t stop there. Miss Q’s daily response to me asking what she was going to do in swimming lessons was a groan that the instructor did the same thing every day. The fact she needed to master the basics first before moving to something more difficult was lost. Miss Q was convinced her lessons should be going in a different direction.

Another funny moment from lessons happened when Miss J, her instructor, reported that Miss Q grew impatient with the other children in her class who weren’t closing the circle for a game. Apparently, Miss Q took it upon herself to let go of the instructor’s hand, and pick up the other two kid’s hands, then stared at Miss J, as if to say the game could start.

Her leadership ability, though surprising, seems to come naturally. Miss Q definitely has an air of confidence around her… and competitiveness. After overhearing that her friend Miss V was staying dry overnight, Miss Q was determined to prove to us she could do it too. And lo- and behold, she hasn’t needed a nighttime diaper for the last two weeks… though my husband and I finally got brave two nights ago, and allowed her to stop wearing a diaper.

Since the beginning of July, Miss Q has been extremely proud of the fact she’s getting bigger; and takes great delight when I tell her not to grow up too fast. “I’m supposed to, Mama,” was her retort. I say was, as two nights ago she told me, “One day when I’m bigger and you’re going to die, it’s the circle of life.” What happened to, “I love you, good night, Mama?”

Clearly she’s trying to separate reality from fiction. It’s our fault really, if we hadn’t read her so many books she’d be none the wiser to the circle of life, and wouldn’t be comparing me to Mufasa. But seriously, this is an interesting time for our girl. Her imagination is bigger and her fears are greater.

We were just in Osoyoos for five days and one night she was having trouble getting to sleep. When I lay on the bed with her and asked what was wrong she didn’t want to tell me. Why? Because then I’d have the bad dreams too. (Such a little bug.)

After channeling Dumbledore and pulling her bad dreams out of her head, swirling them around in the sky and poofing them to oblivion, she confessed that she was worried about great-grandpa’s house and the flood.

Turns out she’d heard about his house flooding. After a quick pow-wow with grandma she learned the full story and was asleep in moments. She woke refreshed and declared her bad dreams were gone.

I’m happy my little is confident, a natural leader and smarter than smart. But it’s a double edged sword, that’s forced me to up my game and question where my lines are. Is she too young to walk without holding my hand in a public building? Is that Disney movie going to give her nightmares? What about the images on the news? Don’t even get me started on if she should be forced to talk to well meaning strangers…

The debate is endless, and it’s only going to get worse. Right now, Miss Q stands on the cusp of preschoolhood. In less than two months her world is going to explode with new friends, a new teacher and new adventures with and without me.

Thankfully the moments when she’s my little baby who wants to nuzzle into me, shower me with kisses and roll around on the floor like playful polar bears balance her logical/figuring out the world side. I eat up these moments.

And as frustrating/challenging/funny as the other moments are, I eat them up too. When she’s bigger and living with her husband (who will be a boy from a different country) in a house made out of bricks, located in a different country, with her cats and maybe her sister, I know she’ll still need me – someone’s going to have to buy the cat food, because her father’s allergic.

Oh, yes. In trouble we are and on our toes we try to be 🙂 Tonight we crossed over to the don’t want to try new things phase (with dinner). I made the yam fries that you wrote about, Haley (http://reemseats.blogspot.com) and mixed it with sweet potato fries and lo and behold she was in tears b/c she didn’t want any of the dinner I made and lord didn’t the whole neighbourhood hear about it (as we were eating outside). All she had to do was taste one fry… Guess I should have made the spicy yogurt dip to go with… 🙂
Krin – you are certainly next!

I’m catching up on your blog…and I’m pretty stoked I made it into an entry! That moment at the pool was so funny- Q just wanted those 3-year olds to quit goofing off and get organized so she could be the fishy in the middle:)

Me

I enjoy watching soccer in the rain. Most of our crafts involve glitter, finger paint or both. I am learning to eat my vegetables. And, whether in socks or bare feet, I absolutely hate stepping on Lego. Here I blog about life with my three little girls, husband and dog.